Ink and Shields
by Tarafina
Summary: Most detectives wouldn’t look twice at a reporter, but he couldn’t help it. :Chloe/Flack:


**Title**: Ink and Shields  
**Category**: Smallville/CSI: NY  
**Genre**: Humor/Romance  
**Ship**: Chloe/Don Flack  
**Rating**: PG13  
**Word Count**: 748  
**Prompt**: 20 Heroes, 1 Heroine  
**Summary**: Most detectives wouldn't look twice at a reporter, but he couldn't help it.

**_Ink and Shields_**

A smart detective knows never to get entangled with a reporter; it's just a bad break-up waiting to happen, possibly on top of getting fired. Having dealt with his fair share of spotlight-seekers and headliner hounds, Detective Don Flack knew who and how to avoid them. He wasn't about to be the guy the others shook their heads at; forever remembering the time he let a pretty face screw up a lead or a case for him. So when reporters stepped in his tracks, he was quick and evasive and he never got caught up in their determined seduction.

And then he met _her_.

She was a snarky, intrepid reporter that didn't let half-answers stop her. Jumping headfirst into whatever was put in front of her, she always got her story. Having moved over to New York from Metropolis, she was proving her gumption ten fold. Wherever he went, she was already there; pen on paper, writing like crazy. But unlike the many reporters before her, Miss Chloe Sullivan was willing to share what she found with the police. Or, at the very least, _him_.

"I trust you, Flack," she told him when he asked why. With a wink, she added, "Anybody who can out-coffee me in a day's work has _got _to be on the job just as strong."

And she was off, with her big grin and her golden curls.

If she got a lead, she told him. If she had a suspicion, she'd call him up and shoot the scenario out for him to agree with or argue over. Before he knew it, his partner was an investigative reporter with a bad habit of sticking her nose in places others didn't want it. And she wasn't always after the headline so much as she was justice. She'd hand in her reporter's pass if it meant somebody got saved. And that was just one of the many reasons their relationship turned from professional to personal.

"Coffee, tomorrow, you and me," he told her as they walked down the busy New York sidewalks.

She cocked a brow up at him. "Are you asking me on a _date_, Detective?"

His mouth curled in a smirk. "And if I am?"

She grinned. "I'd say yes…" Narrowing her eyes, she warned, "But if you think I'm any easier to get along with outside of the business suit, you're wrong."

He laughed light-heartedly.

She was just as tenacious and snarky as ever. Over coffee and bagels and three hours of conversation from the weird to the every-day stuff, Don found the woman behind the writer and he liked her.

During the first year of their relationship his squad was waiting on the paper that would toss him under the bus and it never came. She never sold him out, never shared private details of cases or other business. She stuck to her cases and she only used 'on the record' quotes, as expected. That didn't stop her from getting into trouble here or there; she was a magnet for all things crazy. But in the end, she proved herself to be unique amongst a crowd of fame-chasers.

Most detectives wouldn't look twice at a reporter, but he couldn't help it. And as she lay, tangled in sheets, hair a mess, snoring lightly into his pillow, he played with her hand against his chest. Ink stained her hands; permanent by now. He kissed her fingertips, proof of how hard she worked without ever skewing her moral obligations.

A smile crossed her lips, her eyes fluttered, and green met blue.

"Hey," she murmured.

He grinned. "Hey."

Snuggling closer, she buried her face in his neck. "I forgot to tell you before I fell asleep… I have a theory on your and Mac's latest case…"

Wrapping his arms around her, he hugged her close. "Shoot…"

With a yawn, she stretched out against him and set in for a long conversation involving murder and espionage and everything else they'd witnessed in their lifetimes. Their jobs weren't normal and so their histories weren't either, so maybe it wasn't so strange that a detective fell for a reporter. He figured her press pass and his shield looked pretty good sitting side by side, fitting together in some oddly complimentary way. He caught the bad guy, she told the people, and together they brought justice to the world. If he didn't know better, he'd think it was some kinda fairytale ending… and he could definitely live with that.


End file.
